Author Topic: So it begins..... (Read 11944 times)

shuboyje · « **Reply #40 on:** August 14, 2011, 04:38:43 PM »

More crappy iPhone photos of the progress on the dome. I'm 10 fire brick halves short for the next course, so you what I do have sitting there waiting. Of course it was saturday afternoon just after the local brick suppliers closed when I came to this realization. Tomorrow I'll get those bricks and continue. For now I am prepping the smaller bricks which will be used for the rest of the courses. Many of them are being reused from my old oven so there is a lot of cutting, but the hole is filling in rapidly.

Jackie Tran · « **Reply #41 on:** August 14, 2011, 05:01:09 PM »

Sheboyje, that looks so freakin' awesome. You are my new hero!

Chau

TXCraig1 · « **Reply #42 on:** August 15, 2011, 10:22:22 AM »

Quote from: Jackie Tran on August 14, 2011, 05:01:09 PM

Sheboyje, that looks so freakin' awesome. You are my new hero!

Chau

Ya, what he said! It's exactly what I was thinking when reading your posts.

What ratio of sand to cement did you use for the form?

CL

shuboyje · « **Reply #43 on:** August 15, 2011, 09:04:02 PM »

No cement, just sand and water. Like I said before, it's all gotta be broken down and pulled out the oven door, so cement could cause an issue.

TXCraig1 · « **Reply #44 on:** August 16, 2011, 10:16:02 AM »

When I was looking at building one, all the plans I looked at called for adding some amount of cement to the sand. Not enough to make it into a brick, but just enough to help it hold it's shape after it dried. The ratios the mentioned always seemed like too much cement to me which is why I was curious what you were doing.

CL

shuboyje · « **Reply #45 on:** August 16, 2011, 12:27:34 PM »

I see. The sand form was one rare thing I did no reading or research on. I simply thought back to building sand castles as a kid and how Moldable it got with just enough water. I then simply mixed in water until I could form a ball in my hand that kept it's shape. It seems to be working pretty well. It's not concrete hard, but is firm enough to do it's job.

SELES · « **Reply #46 on:** September 01, 2011, 10:03:44 PM »

How's the oven coming along? The suspense is killing me.

shuboyje · « **Reply #47 on:** September 03, 2011, 06:01:38 PM »

I have made some progress. The dome is complete and I've got the materials on site to start the dome insulation and enclosure tomorrow. I just got my camera back today so I'll get some pictures up within the next few days

shuboyje · « **Reply #48 on:** September 07, 2011, 07:41:43 PM »

Once again, FINALLY some progress to report. First is the finished dome with the form removed for the insulating hearth. I decided not to use Stefano Ferrara's method of slurry over the dome. The main reason being there is nothing on the market here in the US remotely close to whatever it is he uses. I assume it is essentially a calcium aluminate mortar, but that is just a guess. I instead developed my own method, which I hope works well. As the chains of brick get smaller the triangular gaps between the bricks get larger and larger on the inside of the dome. Even smaller bricks don't fix this. Instead of pouring a slurry of questionable mix to fill these gaps or huge amounts of cutting to make tight fitting polygon bricks I opted to use standard castable refractory. I mortared the bricks to the previous chain, but not to the bricks on either side. Once all the "half mortared" bricks were in and the dome was complete except for the final keystone and the triangular gaps I mixed up a batch of KS 4V plus and "rodded" it into the voids. We'll see how this works out when I remove the sand form in a day or two.

The next picture is a close-up of the perlcrete for those who may be interested in what it ends up like.

Once the dome was complete I started the enclosure. To do so I installed the lower section of metal lath. This lath will serve multiple purposes. First I used it as a form to pour the insulation around the soldier course into, and later it will become the first layer in the laminated ferrocement shell that will form as the ovens enclosure.

Finally I began the dome insulation with the lower section around the soldier course. The cavity is 6" and it was filled with a 10:1 mix of portland cement and vermiculite. 10:1 in this case because it doesn't need to be as strong as the insulation under the floor. Vermiculite because that is what I had on hand. Perlite would also work, and I actually like it better.

Next up the vent. It's slowly getting close to a functional oven. I hope to cast the vent this weekend, but we've all seen how I've been keeping up with my plans so far.

shuboyje · « **Reply #49 on:** September 07, 2011, 07:42:43 PM »

wheelman · « **Reply #50 on:** September 08, 2011, 06:59:24 PM »

Jeff, man that's awsome! what an amazing low-dome oven you have there. congrats. i've heard reference to a "double dome" for the vent. do you have any idea about that? i assume it means that the chimney leads to a void between the oven roof layer and another layer to utilize the heat of the exhaust. maybe Craig will tell us how his smoke makes its way from the door to the pipe on top..
bill

shuboyje · « **Reply #51 on:** September 08, 2011, 08:41:54 PM »

The sand form is out. I'm pretty happy with the results, it looks similar to other domes I've seen built over a sand form. There are certainly some voids in mortar on inside, but nothing I'm concerned about, again every sand form dome I've seen has them. I tried hard to avoid it, but obviously it is just gonna be that way. Out of curiosity I tested the depth of the voids with a thin piece of metal and found them to be 1/4" at the deepest. The dome height ended up right on at 12.75".

The double dome has been documented in Steffano Ferrara build pictures. It is basically a vent transition that routes back over the oven and exits in the center. I plan to follow that plan but use modern materials and methods in place of the methods he uses...which in my opinion look like it is cobbled together from scraps and rubble....

JConk007 · « **Reply #52 on:** September 08, 2011, 09:15:08 PM »

Looks awsome ! Nice work! I took a good hard loook inside the dual stephanos at Vesta and you are very close this baby will get it done for sure who needs forno ?

TXCraig1 · « **Reply #53 on:** September 08, 2011, 10:04:49 PM »

Jeff, very impressive and very cool.

Craig

dellavecchia · « **Reply #54 on:** September 20, 2011, 12:14:31 PM »

Quote from: shuboyje on September 08, 2011, 08:41:54 PM

The double dome has been documented in Steffano Ferrara build pictures. It is basically a vent transition that routes back over the oven and exits in the center. I plan to follow that plan but use modern materials and methods in place of the methods he uses...which in my opinion look like it is cobbled together from scraps and rubble....

Jeff - I am really interested to see you do this. The SF builds look like they are using terra cotta tiles of some sort. I imagine you have a plan for another materials - very exciting to see what you do.

John

shuboyje · « **Reply #55 on:** September 20, 2011, 10:29:50 PM »

John,

It's finally underway after changing my mind 3 times on how to do it. I think I've got the easiest way to a result I will be happy with. I'll get some pics when there is something worth taking them of. This has turned out to be a much tougher part of the build then I expected.

Essen1 · « **Reply #56 on:** September 20, 2011, 10:37:04 PM »

Jeff,

That's really impressive! I wish I had the real estate to build a WFO. Great job.

shuboyje · « **Reply #57 on:** October 12, 2011, 05:46:50 PM »

Just finished the last few pieces that have been holding up the vent a few minutes ago. I'll hopefully have some pictures of progress in the next few days.

thezaman · « **Reply #58 on:** October 12, 2011, 08:11:10 PM »

jeff, this has been a fascinating read. you are very skilled. i cannot wait for your next progress report.

forzaroma · « **Reply #59 on:** October 13, 2011, 10:14:35 AM »

Did you take any pics of the form that was made for the sand mold?